Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

99.

The next few minutes were all a lot of people thought about. But it wasn’t the hundreds of people in the crowd, nodding in agreement and cheering and applauding that Ailbhe thought of. It was Polly sitting at home, listening and waiting for Aberama to finally come home and put the grief and pain aside so they could start their life together. It was Ada waiting by the radio with Karl, waiting for Liam to come in the door so she could see he was safe and so she could give him her answer. It was Charlie and Liam sailing down the Cut in darkness, trying to be as silent and motionless as possible. It was Alfie Solomons, waiting for that gunshot to be fired and for his people’s enemy to be silenced.
 
Mosley was gaining more and more momentum, his voice ricocheting through the hall and his volume only growing, having to compete with the roaring approval of the crowd.
 
“Every citizen shall serve the state!” He announced as one of the new rules for his regime, a regime that would put Finn and Isiah in uniform, even Karl who was still just a boy.
 
People were on their feet now, cheering and applauding in a deafening volume. And that was when the plan’s next step slid into motion. The front doors security was breached by the gang of Jewish men that Alfie had given to Tommy for this purpose. A violent riot started to erupt throughout the rows of the crowd, drawing McCavern’s men down into the crowd, leaving Aberama with his golden opportunity.
 
Then it all happened at once.
 
 Tommy looked at his pocket watch.
 
Barney started counting down from ten.
 
Aberama stepped out of the shadows, weapon in hand, unwinding it and ready to wrap it around McCavern’s neck until the life drained out of him.
 
But Ailbhe saw it. A movement behind Aberama, someone coming up behind him that was not planned. She gasped, ready to step forward, to shout, to call out, anything to warn Aberama but she didn’t get that chance. A hand covered her mouth, more than one hand grabbed her arms and around her neck, stopping her from moving nor shouting. Nobody heard it, nobody saw it. They didn’t hear her try to scream, try to struggle, didn’t see her vanish into the darkness, her head covered and her vision blocked. The last thing she saw before they covered her eyes was the glint of a blade and how it found itself lodged into Aberama’s torso.
 
She couldn’t see, couldn’t move her hands as they were pinned behind her back, couldn’t scream since a hand was firmly clamped over her mouth. She tried everything. She tried to bite the hand that covered her mouth, she bucked and kicked, trying to get free but there was more than one person and they were much stronger than her. She was bundled down the steps away from the stage, away from the noise and chaos but none of that noise and chaos included a gunshot and Ailbhe knew their plan had failed. If this was Mosley, if he knew, then she would be dead or arrested within minutes.
 
She was shoved into a seat, her arms tied back and the sack pulled off her head so she could see who her assailants were. It made no difference. She had never seen them before, both men were older than her but couldn’t have been more than thirty. They were strong and broad, both with beards and moustaches, dark auburn hair on one and a bald and shining head on the other.
 
“Ailbhe Kennedy, your father would be ashamed of you” The bald man commented, shaking his head at her disappointedly.
 
He was Irish, his accent plain as day. But none of this made any sense to her.
 
“What the fuck are you talking about? Let me fucking go”
 
She shouted, despite knowing that nobody would hear her.

They were in one of the rooms behind the stage and with everyone focused on the drama onstage, she knew nobody would even notice she was gone. Nobody would even hear her screaming. She knew this because it had been their exact plan, their exact thought process behind killing McCavern amidst the chaos. It was a good idea, it just hadn’t occurred to Ailbhe that someone else might think so too.
 
But she didn’t even get a chance to protest again. The back of his hand came across her face in a sharp slap, a ring slicing into the skin of her cheek and splitting the skin of her lip. She felt warm blood on her face and the metallic taste in her mouth, but it was nothing new. She had gotten in her fair share of scrapes and she knew that you couldn’t let them think they were hurting you. So even though it throbbed and she felt heat rush to the throbbing areas, she stayed silent.
 
“Ailbhe Kennedy, we sentence you to death on the charges of treason, betrayal and murder” The other man told her, pulling a gun from inside his jacket and making Ailbhe’s blood run cold.
 
“What are you… what the fuck are you talking about?”
 
She asked, her eyes wide as she looked between them, her mask slipping and a real confusion and fear coming through. But they thought it to be an act. They had been warned that Ailbhe Kennedy was equal parts charming and convincing, that she could lie her way out of anything.
 
But the auburn-haired man leaned down, squatting in front of her so they were eye to eye. He wanted to look that murderous bitch in the eyes, so she knew they had caught her, that her betrayal wouldn't go unpunished.
 
“I’m sure you were glad to hear that one of our most loyal soldiers, Maggie Brennan was seized at Liverpool docks yesterday morning.”
 
He told her, watching her feigned surprise and shock wash over her. But he should’ve known it was real. Ailbhe felt weak at the thought. Her mind was contantly so busy, always racing and always thinking. And yet it went blank. Maggie was meant to escape; Maggie was meant to get her happy ending. The only people who knew about her escape were Mickey and Ailbhe. Mickey was dead and Ailbhe soon would be too apparently, but she hadn’t told anyone that would betray her.
 
“What? No!” She protested, looking between the men.
 
It was becoming clearer to Ailbhe what was going on. They were IRA. They were part of Maggie’s flying column, her unit. They were the people who had ordered the assassination of Field Marshall Johnson. They were the people Ailbhe had protected by helping Maggie escape.
 
“She was hanged for treason this morning” The other man added, making Ailbhe feel bile rise in her throat.
 
Maggie was dead. Hung for a crime Ailbhe had helped her run from. Hung for a crime that once had Ailbhe’s name listed as an accomplice. But Tommy and Finn had gotten her name erased, Mosley had promised to keep her secret. Mosley knew nothing, it couldn’t be Mosley. If not him, then who?
 
“You gave up Maggie to the police to save your own live, well it wasn’t worth it” The man squatting in front of her told her, in case the penny hadn’t dropped.
 
Pulling his gun out and putting it up under her chin, he looked into the young woman’s eyes that were filling with tears. She was a good actress, for a second, he almost believed her performance. But Ailbhe Kennedy was the only person that Maggie Brennan told about her escaping, her husband had sworn to his fact. So, she had to be the person who gave her up. There wasn’t any other alternative to them. But Ailbhe knew there was. If there was a rat, a rat that hadn’t been Mickey, that knew the Shelby’s and the Kennedy’s plans, they knew exactly where Maggie was.
 
They also knew where Barney was positioned to kill Mosley, where Aberama would be waiting to kill McCavern. And they had signed off on Ailbhe being killed for her apparent crimes against the cause she once had fought for.
 
“I didn’t give Maggie up! I would never, I fucking got her out in the first place! Why would I give her up now?”
 
She protested, her voice at a shouting level now as she struggled against her restraints and refused to take her sentence lying down.
 
But there was no convincing of her innocence to be done. It wasn’t a trial. It was a sentence being carried out.
 
“Ailbhe Kennedy, on behalf of the Irish Free State we sentence you to death. May God have mercy on your soul.”
 
He said, standing over Ailbhe and placing the gun against her temple, ready to blow her traitorous head open and splay it across the walls for her precious brothers to find.
 
It wasn’t the first time someone had threatened Ailbhe’s life, but it felt like this might be the last as she had no more cards left to play. They had orders to leave Ailbhe Kennedy dead. She had nothing, no weapon, no proof, nothing. She had nothing, they wouldn’t listen if she sobbed, if she begged and cried, claimed she was innocent.

All she could do was close her eyes and hope it wasn’t Finn who found her dead body because she knew his life wouldn’t ever move on from that point. She hoped it would be someone she didn’t know, let it be a stranger, someone who could just tell Tommy, tell Finn and her brothers. She didn’t want them to see that for themselves. She didn’t want them to spend the rest of their lives remembering her, a mess of bone and blood like she remembered her own father. She didn't want them to remember her like that.
 
Whether it was imagination or adrenaline, she didn’t know but she could hear breathing around her, a voice telling her to close her eyes. Her mother’s comforting whispers like she used to use to get Ailbhe to calm down and sleep. She could even hear Séan, her father, John, Bonnie. They were there, waiting for her. She’d be okay. Her family wouldn’t, the family she left behind but she couldn’t do anymore for them, she told herself. She had to let them go, let them alone to deal with the mess that was left behind because she had no hand left to play.